ONWARD Page 2 April 2003

MISSIONS IN MOTION

(From the Maggie Styers Missionary Chapter, Fairview.

A reconstruction of Tink Kanoy’s talk on 11/23/02.)

What do we do?

Our members and friends at Fairview have sometimes not been sure of how the Moravian Church spreads and supports the gospel in what used to be called “foreign” countries. That word is no longer used since no one likes to be called foreign. All Moravians take seriously Jesus’ last command, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matt. 28:19) Where the gospel is not proclaimed we try to follow that command of Jesus.

Fairview is a part of this world-wide task through our Maggie Styers Missionary Chapter. We meet on the third Sunday every other month starting in January each year. Everyone is invited. There is no roll call or formal membership list. We have a program usually presented by someone who has recently been to a mission field. In these meetings we examine and pray the greatest needs to support. This list of needs may come from the Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church in America, an interprovincial board, or from a field worker with the latest news. We have open sharing of the needs and our expected income. After this discussion, we adopt several projects to support. We then appeal to the congregation at a Missionary Lovefeast, of which we have two each year, in early spring and in the fall. Our congregation has supported these projects faithfully since they are not a part of the church budget but are a second mile giving. It is well to remember; It is more blessed to give than to receive. That is, if we have sufficient for our needs and have some to share we are truly blessed.

What are we a chapter of?

The Mission Society of the Moravian Church, South, Inc., in Winston-Salem, is composed of people and groups of people from various congregations throughout the Southern Province. The governing board of the Society is elected by synod. This board meets 4 times a year and holds a provincial mission lovefeast annually; the last one was on Nov. 3, 2002.

There the congregations come for worship with combined bands prelude, excellent choir and music and a noted speaker. It is a real mission lovefeast celebration with people coming from all around. Unlike the Maggie Styers Missionary Chapter, the Society does have a formal membership and endeavors to increase its membership once per year through envelopes distributed in each congregation a few weeks before this provincial event.
To become a member, you complete a form and send it in. Cost is $10 each year, $7 for seniors. There is also a lifetime membership for $150 and this money is not spent but is invested and the interest is paid annually from then on. These memberships are a wonderful way to honor a husband, wife, or family member and their memory goes on in the interest to support missions.It is this Mission Society that Fairview’s chapter goes into. When the Maggie Styers Missionary Chapter elects officers, we include one or two persons to serve as ambassadors or representatives to the Mission Society. The ambassadors are the liaison between our congregational chapter and the provincial Society and is responsible for promoting members and keeping the members of our chapter and our congregation informed of activities of the Society. One of the major benefits of members in the Society is the monthly newsletter ONWARD, which highlights activities, concern, and correspondence from missionaries in the field. Br. John Giesler, who was our Mission Lovefeast speaker last fall, is the editor. ONWARD also includes a special prayer list for missions, focusing on a special need somewhere in the world each day, composed by Br. Robert Iobst.

From the Mission Society South, the Maggie Styers Chapter goes into the Board of World Mission, an interprovincial agency sponsored by the Alaska, Northern and Southern Provinces, and by our cousins, the Unity of the Brethren in Texas. This Mission Board disperses funds to the projects we fund. It recruits, sends, and funds mission workers who preach, teach; do health, construction, and agricultural work; and assist teachers and leaders in other congregations of other countries. We try to find the needs and try to supply them. It works. The results have been effective since 1732, when the first Protestant mission work was started by Moravians in St. Thomas in the Caribbean. It is in the mission fields that church growth is still most effectively spreading.